When does it end?

I’ve happily and proudly declared (to myself) that I reached the end of my historical novel, “Journals of a Renaissance Court….the story of Anne of Brittany.”  Now I’m polishing. But last night I attended a reading of a play by Lorraine Liscio about Christine de Pizan (1363-1434), who although she died about 60 years before the period of my novel, was an important influence on Anne and the other women in her time and place.

Christine was an intelligent, rather free-thinking and influential woman, and quite possibly the first ‘professional writer.’ I have all that in the book. But in the dramatization of her life I realized  the possibilities of some of the political characters and battles on which I had not really focused  because they took place so much earlier. I see some fascinating links that will really augment the story.

One of the ways to enrich a historical novel is to include references and links to significant people and events that relate to the main characters and situations. And now I have a series of situations and family links that I know will be fascinating. That’s today’s job.

But how and when do I stop?